I had a hard time with netting getting caught in gooseberry thorns, as well as pushing down on the plants, especially when it rained. With only the nets berries were squished against the nets, and the jerks (squirrels, chipmunks) would often still eat the fruit by slurping it through the net. I tried sticks under the nets in the past but they often moved.
This year I bought tomato cages specifically to put around my currants and gooseberries and then nets over them. If my blueberries had not been destroyed by the rabbits, I’d have done the same for them. They help keep the plants upright and at the same time away from the netting. The nets are also easier to remove to harvest in-between. Last year, removing the netting was so frustrating that I ended up leaving the berries on for too long.
I have a similar set-up for an in-ground miniscule bush cherry, which shares its net with a small potted Aronia.
True hardware cages would be ideal, but this seems the next best thing. Any other ideas for netting?
(If everything looked crammed on this pic, I have a tiny yard and so everything is planted close together.)
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I’m currently using netting like you have on container blueberries. There’s a drawstring on the netting so that I can pull it tight, directly around the fabric container. To prop up the netting (so it’s not resting on top of the blueberry plant) I’m using 2 stakes inside the container at the very edge of the fabric container. I bought an entire stack of silicone muffin cups on Amazon. A clever idea suggested to me by a.i. Silicone is UV resistant. I put the silicone muffin cups on the very top of the stake and secure it with a uv resistant zip tie (they have reusable zip ties nowadays too).
The silicone helps prevent the stake from piercing into my precious netting. Hopefully allowing me to use it for several seasons. I’ve noticed it’s easy to water the plants through the netting. The only time I’m lifting up the netting is to harvest my blueberries. I have birds all around. They haven’t bothered the netting. I’m also using “scare tape” around my blueberries too. It is highly reflective and makes noise in the wind.
The silicone muffin cups I got are colored green for the most part, as to not draw attention to the plants (birds are attracted to certain colors, they tend to ignore green).
For tomatoes I use larger organza bags. Larger bags are nice because I can fit multiple tomatoes inside one bag. It just makes it way easier to put them on and off. I’m a big fan of the organza bags for things like figs too. I didn’t have any animals bothering my figs last year when I put the bags over them. It kept most of the bugs out too.
I’ve sourced stakes for cheap at Amazon and also at Ocean Job Lot. Ocean Job Lot just recently had a sale (not sure if it’s still live) but at their local stores they have metal “bamboo” 6ft stakes for under $2 a piece. I think it came out to like $1.50 a stake. They also had 5ft stakes in a pack of 10 for like $10. Very sturdy. Will last for years.
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Great idea with the silicone cups. Coincidentally, I was just at Ocean State Job Lot yesterday and found a 5-pack of 6ft plastic stakes for $6.50, though your deal sounds even better. Ah, I wish I had known those weird looking bamboo stakes I saw yesterday were metal. I thought they were bamboo dipped in vinyl and passed them by because I thought that was such a strange product nobody asked for 
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I, too, use organza bags! They often work, depending on the fruit, until just before it ripens, then bam, overnight something just eats through the bags and leaves them hanging with a hole in them. My very first pears and apricots succumbed to one such overnight thief. Thinking maybe a racoon or opossum, because I’d rather not think of rats climbing all over my trees. This year I’m trying to think of a way to construct loose cages that I can then cover with nets similar to the ones in the pic, maybe even double net them.
I’m so jealous of people with no pest pressure.
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Maybe for larger fruit like pears/apricots try using this method: Homemade metal screen fruit protectors
Here’s a 2nd link to read on these forums where someone tested it out on their peaches and apricots and it worked for them: Result of homemade screen fruit protector
